1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for validating the operational durability of an electronic product based upon accelerated laboratory sinusoidal vibration tests employing the physics-of-failure and damage correlation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The vibration loading applied on automotive components during actual operating conditions is the combination of several random processes corresponding to different field driving routes. In order to improve quality and reduce testing time and cost, laboratory tests are usually conducted on products in an accelerated manner. In the automotive industry, accelerated testing using sinusoidal vibration is widely used due to the low equipment cost and the convenience in test set up and monitoring. Product durability is correctly validated by this sinusoidal vibration test provided that this data can be correctly correlated to actual field data.
An objective of the present invention is to develop a testing methodology to determine sinusoidal vibration testing methodologies based on the physics-of-failure and damage equivalence technique such that the vibration damage generated in the laboratory test will be equivalent to the damage induced by random vibration in the field. Based on the field random vibration profiles and the desired product life goal, an equivalent laboratory sinusoidal vibrational testing environment,including the vibration level and test time, is defined. If a product survives this laboratory test environment, it can survive in the field during the desired life time.